In the panic surrounding a worldwide pandemic which kills 15 percent of the population and cripples many more, a secret organization, the Propater, topples the UN and seizes control of much of the world. A boy and a girl, raised in an abandoned virology research center, immune to the virus, are attacked by the Propater and escape.

Based strongly on Gnostic mythology, all major characters are named after gnostic deities, and have analogous roles.

And found that there were some valid points made by all parties. I can probably get away with posting a wall of text about it since so many other people have done so.

The pacing and narration remind me strongly of 20CB. Often there will be a switch to a new location & new characters to reveal more intrigues / aspects of the plotline. For the most part these plotlines either converge after a short time or don't at all. This story is nowhere near shounen, it's clearly an action / drama that's heavy on plotline and themes of morality.

Much of the story deals in conflicts of the type which involve conspiracy, hackers, set-ups, snipers, explosions. That's why it's action. But it's also plot-based. The plot is science fiction in the sense of technology but equally in the sense of "political science". And the sci-fi is far from a distortion of scientific principles. The author understands what he talks about. The Propatria is no evil empire, by the way. They practice diplomacy, and are influenced/subject to the media and public opinion opinion.

The author's style also changes over time slightly but noticeably. There're a lot of moral and social rhetoric early on (it's not random intellectualism as Chas decided, btw), but then it starts to focus more on plot & character development with rhetoric usually thrown in only at crucial times when it's appropriate. There are also a lot more plotlines going on at once by volume 13, in earlier volumes there was often only 1 plot/perspective at a time.

The first several volumes are from the perspective of Elia as a sensitive kid who comes to experience some harsh realities, but focus a lot more deeply on the people who meets than he himself. Volumes 5-8 finally demonstrate the depth of his character and start to truly develop it (masterfully). Around volume 8/9 the author also starts to show a sense of humor (a "cute" side) to the story. And starting from volume 9 the author starts to incorporate a lot more complexity into the story, with new characters and plots.

We have multi-chapter flashbacks. Often entire story arcs have no apparent relevance to the main plots of the series except to develop characters and offer a look into the lives people live (like volume 9). If you pay attention you can quickly tell when a flashback is a flashback, otherwise you should assume a sudden shift in location/characters just means that the story's timeline is progressing uninterrupted elsewhere and not let the context bother you.

So what I like: the depth of storyline, the attention to detail, the unique characters and style of character development, the author's tendency to not pull punches. What I don't like: the sudden decision on the part of the author to add a "cute" side to the story ~volume 8/9, the plot which often becomes so complex I can't follow the details or remember names that all sound South American, the learning curve required to understand exactly how all these plotlines fit together and realize what is and isn't related to the central plots of the series and realize that volumes 6-8 really /don't/ have any relevance to those plots except character development, and as Chas mentioned the very fragmented plot which leaves so many questions unanswered it can become difficult to make sense of.

Let me comment on Chas's controversial post, by the way.

That the action is bad is just false. It's very cleverly orchestrated and suspensefully set up. The one exception to this is Kenji (the Jesus of knives), who is most likely the object of the term "storm trooper effect", but Kenji's part is less than 20% of that whole story arc. The enemies were never as easy as mindless drones, and the "invincible anti-heroes" were far from it. I can't reveal details but if you read the fight Chas is referring to in volumes 2-4 you'd see how incorrect he is.

That the story takes an obvious moral stance is also totally incorrect. Much of the story, in fact, has consisted of bringing up moral conflicts without really resolving them. A major theme of the story as I interpret it is inability to protect those you love without committing acts of sin (the idea of sin is very present as well). Even if the "obvious moral stance" is the declaration of that as a fundamental conflict, doesn't that fundamental conflict give rise to enough moral difficulty by itself?

Just a multigenerational, worldwide, political, social, religious, scientific, complicated, action, sci-fi sometimes romantic tale of multiple in-depth and all the more interesting and various characters... And it's freaking good.

Reminds me of Eternal Sabbath. It's wonderfully dark and thought-provoking and how can you resist all that awesome kick-ass battle scenes and the sci-fi-ness?? Um, I do NOT find it lame (although yes, there are some concepts of science and all that which I don't understand, but still, it's not BORING) and I think it is VERY realistic. Especially the battle scenes. And the characters... my god, they're in-depth.

The only things I have against it are the unnecessary sex scenes that pop up every once in the a while (but whatever, this is a seinen manga and the intended audience are like middle-aged guys) and that sometimes, the manga gets confusing. There's lots of characters and new ones are always appearing out of thin air, while the old ones hang in the background until they reappear to surprise you at random intervals. It's kinda hard to keep track of who is exactly who. And the plot gets... weird sometimes. Like there are moments when I'm like, "What was the whole point of focusing on what's-her-face for 5 chapters and then killing her off?" etc, etc.

The art... I love it, surprisingly since I'm always picky about it. It's not flat-out gorgeous or perfect, but I like how realistic it is (more or less) and it's definitely not bad enough to disrupt the whole thing.

Did I stress how realistic it seems? It's not just the plot, but even the dialogues and most importantly, the relationships between the characters and the portrayals of... emotions. Very touching at times. I love how even the minor characters have their own limelight.

It's moderately-paced, although a bit slow in the beginning. But believe me, it's worth reading! I have not been able to put it down since I picked it up yesterday. And the philosophy bits in it and the stuff about religion... just really, really intriguing.

I wasn't expecting to like this because I generally don't like Sci-fi stuff, but I was pleasantly surprised. The plot lines are intricate, but really good and the characters all develop and grow as you read. Definitely one of my favorites.

this manga is more than a manga. its a vision, a carrier of hope, a testament, a prayer. i...after finishing this i am full of humanity, even with the ugliness and the despair, this manga make my heart race and just be greatful to be alive. how can i convey this feeling? for 18 volumes transporting me to a world that is both ugly and beautiful, introduce me to the broken but hopeful characters, make me full of anger and despair but still light a hope to me, it is too complete of a masterpiece. it end with a bang but still left abit for us to construct a new world in it.

there are some fault in that i can easily overlook. for example the characters have too similar of faces, especially the shape and the eyes, especially for 'pretty people'. theres no pure people left unviolated and dead, thus made me quite despairing for anyone with any ounce of moral to survive. but those gripes is too minor to consider after finishing this fantastic pice of literature.

im giving 9.9 because i dont like giving 10, but this is more like 9.99999999. one should read this!

This is an intense manga. The art is beautiful(-ly realistic), as is the characters and circumstances. Someone compared this to Eternal Sabbath; I feel that is perhaps a terrible comparison--on the same scale, I would have to say ES gets a 1 and Eden gets a 10+ (in plot, character development, pace...). Many of the realistic aspects remind me of Crichton's novels (Endo=the Crichton of manga?). Things people may complain about--"random" sex scenes, myriad and complexity of characters, lack of a hero--really just contribute to the realism of the wonderfully conceived world. Also, abruptness of characters dying (without a "bang") occurs throughout the series (which I love--the fact that Endo builds up and brings characters to life without treating them as precious glorified creations). The story starts out slow, and feels fragmented, but the pace catches on quickly, you get absorbed in the exciting developments, and soon you'll be flying through each book! Everything is pieced together in the end, and although it may be a little anticlimactic, I think that's just how the entire manga is; there is no dramatic "bang" and there is no big theatrical finale moment--it feels like Endo wanted the ending to be as just another enduring day in this "endless world."I think the manga's message is optimistic, though simply displayed alongside/through the darker struggles of life (and without giving way to it). I'm sure the interpretations can be endless, though.

Eden is great. The art, characters (+development), delivery, and plot are some of the best I've encountered in manga (though not the best, hence the 9).

I feel like Eden started off very very strong, faltered in the middle, and the ending was slightly forgettable. Definitely biased since I personally adore plots with time frame jumps that come together as more information comes to light.

I feel like the emotions were very poignant in the first few volumes - the lines were brilliant and the delivery was almost flawless. It was so good that I put my rose-colored glasses on and ignored the first few missteps later on. Somewhere in the middle (during the arc when Miriam was introduced, I think) I stopped feeling that way, because the story became more about mafia back-stabbing and delving into the darkness of society, but with Eliah being completely weird with his humor. Sorry Endou, but that premise has been well-explored and you didn't really bring anything new to the table.

Then somehow it jumped back into the thought-provoking time frame jumps, but still, it was less heartfelt than before. Maybe I've just watched too many documentaries, but all talking about all those world issues without an intensely personal story weaved in was a bit bland. It sort of redeemed itself because it put in all those allusions to Gnosticism, which I've read a lot about, so I felt like I got more out of it than Endou intended because I was reading too much into everything. The ending definitely could have been delivered in a better way, and the message could've had so much more impact. But at least there was a sense of closure, which was nice.

So there you go, another wall of text about Eden. XD Read it, it's definitely one of the better mangas out there!

Plain and simple, Eden is one of the greatest manga I had the pleasure of reading. Mature and serious plot combined with great art give us a masterpiece. I only wish that Endo Hiroki's list of works is a bit longer.

One thing has to be said about the plot, it's very complicated and requires your full attention. There are many characters and all kinds of shit happens throughout the manga so you have to be on your toes constantly. There's world politics, science, social problems, crime and some higher agenda through entire manga. And when we add frequent references to the gnostic mythology to the mix... it tends to confuse you sometimes. So, I don't recommend taking long breaks in reading this as it will take time for you to get into the plot again.

The ending, I liked. Don't want to revel too much here but it felt somehow satisfying. Although the old problems are still present it leaves hope of better tomorrow.Recommended read.